Press conference quotes: Jerald Foster

Offensive Lineman Jerald FosterOn last touchdown drive“There was a lot of emotion flying around. Big thing was just not to screw up. I didn’t want to be the problem for our team not being able to have success in that last drive. With Tanner (Lee) back there, he was all fired up, ready to go. Just being able to do my job so playmakers like him are able to showcase themselves well, I’m just happy to be able to get the job done.”

On what Tanner Lee said before the last touchdown drive“Nothing crazy. I would say, it’s more just the look that he had in his eyes, he was aggressive. He looked like he really wanted it that much more. When you have a leader like that, pushing you forward, it’s just that much easier to respond with positive play, with doing your job, just trying to get it so he can get the ball out. It didn’t really say anything crazy, he said, “Let’s go get it,” or something like that, but it wasn’t anything too crazy. The way he was looking at us, I could tell he really wanted it.”

On what the offensive line has done to help Tanner Lee improve“Same guy. I would say that a lot of that was on the O-line. We need to protect better, make it so that he’s able to showcase himself better. I feel like we’ve really grown as a position group. Some of the stuff was just unlucky. Somethings just happened to go the other team’s way. I’m not going to take that away from the teams we played, good teams that we played but we had some unlucky spells here and there. So now that we’re rolling, now that it looks good for Tanner (Lee) in the last four games he’s been playing really well. I’m just happy to see what we are able to do in the last four.”

On quarterback Tanner Lee“I still think he’s a top-rated gunslinger out there doing his job. I love being able to see the ball fly over my head and go into somebody’s hands. It’s always whistling by me. It’s great when he gets going, and I’m happy to see. I didn’t know how many yards he had until after it was over and people were freaking out telling me he had 400 yards. I was like wow that’s pretty impressive but just to counteract the good, we need to now go back and figure out our problems in the run game. That was a big part as why we couldn’t get into the end zone, there in the redone, what was it four times that we had that. We really do need to take this win with a grain of salt and just remember that if we want to be able to beat Northwestern, we really need to improve all around.”

On run blocks“It’s the same thing, get on your blocks, keep your blocks and let the ball carrier show out. I feel like we’ve been doing that pretty well for most games except for the last one. I think we’re going to get back to our technique throughout this week, really get back to our old roots so that we’ll be able to have our running backs be able to play the game really well, Mikale (Wilbon), Devine (Ozigbo) and (Jaylin) Bradley.”

On the O-line being on the same page“I would say it’s both I guess. That’s just football. Our technique was there for our pass pro and look where that got us. I feel like we had sometimes where we got up there and we were all talking and not really being on the same page and it showed out. It showed there. Us being able to be on the same page, us being able to figure out bringing our hips to our blocks and things like that, I think it’ll help us out in the next week.”

On a run play versus a screen“I would say doing it on a run play, you kind of know where the guy is going to be. You’ve got a better sense of where he is going to be. If it’s a screen or something like that, you’re just going out there trying to cover him up and trying to give him a two-way go. What that means is keeping your shoulders north and south so that the ball carrier can pick which way he wants to. I don’t know, I feel like it’s a little different but at the same time you’re going up to quicker guys than you, you still have to break down. If you’re going to cut, you better throw it quick. It kind of is the same, a little bit different because of the consistency.”

On Michael Decker and Tanner Farmer being out, Cole Conrad and Matt Farniok filling in“We have tough guys. I’m not counting any of my guys out for the season and then to add on to that, Cole (Conrad), he started this year off and (Matt) Farniok he played throughout the year so I’m not nervous having either one of those guys in. I feel like guys get better, everyone starts to get healthy then we just go back to having just five of us. There’s still five of us out there and we’re all going to be able to play. We’re all going to be ready to play when we get to Saturday to go against Northwestern.”

On going up-tempo and using the running game“We work on our up-tempo game pretty much every day for a portion of the day. If that’s what works, it obviously worked at the end of the game, we were all up-tempo for those last two drives that we had and that worked out for us. If that’s the way we go, then that’s the way we go. Again, if we would have had our run game, it would have changed up us needing to use our up-tempo just because we would’ve been able to turn those field goals into touchdowns. That would’ve just helped us out throughout the full game. Up-tempo is cool with the O-line, keep us in a two-point stance, we don’t have to get all the way down so a little easier on your back.”

On up-tempo“I couldn’t tell you. Somethings work, somethings don’t. If it wouldn’t have worked as well as it did, us going into our up-tempo then we’d be sitting here saying well why would you go into that at all. I don’t know, it worked out well for us, our up-tempo play. We’ll be using it probably. If you said coach Riley said we’ll be using it, we’ll be using it. I’m fine with whatever we do. Both parts of the game are great. I’m just going to be going with the flow.”